A conventional pipe clamp comprises a cast, forged, stamped or fabricated pipe anchor (sometimes referred to as a “base”) which is welded to a railway car body to hold a brake line. Conventionally, a wedge is slid over pipe clamp tabs provided on the anchor, and tabs on the anchor are hammered up (toward the car body) to lock the wedge in place. One problem with the conventional pipe clamps is that tabs on the anchor tend to snap off due to metal cracking, and welding is required to remove and/or replace the pipe clamp anchor, which can be time consuming and costly.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,371,544 to Heitmeyer and U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,158 to Nadherny are incorporated by reference for their disclosure of pipe clamps, including pipe anchors, and pipe clamp wedges. Prior art designs in which locking elements are provided on a clamp have the tabs positioned inconveniently, and have not been adapted for use with existing anchors.